Non-electronic activities

The letter arrived early in May. I have been selected for Federal Jury Duty.

I am not looking forward to this. And please don’t email me about how it is a privilege to serve on a jury of peers, yadda yadda yadda. I know all this, and as much as I appreciate the features of the US Criminal Justice system, I’m being honest. Jury duty is nowhere in my top 1000 things to do. Six years of working with the local police department, dealing with equipment in the jail and sorting mugshots, have left in me a strong aversion to those in the system.

Anyway.

Having done jury duty before, I know that if I am called up to form a selection pool, I will sit around for hours until selected to go into a courtroom. Those hours sitting in the potential juror room are long and boring. You can’t leave. You simply wait.

Besides the inconvenience of having to take off work, I was informed that I am not allowed to bring my cell phone, PDA, MP3 or computer to the courthouse. So I’m left thinking, “What on earth am I going to do as I sit around waiting to be pulled into preliminary selection?”

Sure, there are books. I can read. I can knit. I can blog longhand. But so much of what I do on a day-to-day basis is now electronic that I am not sure what I will do with all that sitting-in-one-place non-electronic time.

Another great idea! I was just thinking yesterday that it would be great if I could have a chunk of time away from home and family to do this type of planning. It never occurred to me that the Federal Government was going to provide me with the opportunity!